Miniature internal combustion engine
OwnerLeopold v. Habsburg-Lothringeninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An internal combustion engine has a cylinder and a piston with rectangular cross sections. A guideway slot extends across one face of the piston, and engages an off-center pin affixed to the crankshaft for translating linear movement of the piston to rotational movement of the crankshaft. The cylinder may be formed of four side wall plates mounted to define the side walls of the cylinder, and plate means covering the ends of the side wall plates to define a combustion chamber and a crankcase. The crankshaft may be hollow, to define a fuel inlet passageway.
Claims18
An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder having a rectangular cross section, a piston having a rectangular cross section defined by a pair of short opposite sides and a pair of long opposite sides, said sides defining four corners, said piston being mounted in said cylinder for movement along the longitudinal axis of said cylinder, a crankshaft having an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said cylinder, said piston having a guideway in the surface thereof toward said crankshaft, said guideway extending transversely of the axis of said cylinder completely across said surface and only partially through said piston axially of said crankshaft, pin means, means mounting said pin means on said crankshaft in a position offset with respect to the axis of said crankshaft, said pin means extending into said guideway, whereby said pin means couples the crankshaft directly to the piston so that linear movement of said piston in said cylinder is directly translated to rotational movement of said crankshaft by way of said pin means, said piston further comprising a substantially straight groove in each of said short sides and a curved groove in each of said long sides, said grooves merging in said corners, a pair of straight sealing strips inserted in the respective groove of said short piston sides, a pair of curved sealing strips inserted in the respective groove of said long piston sides, separate spring means inserted in each of said grooves for uniformly urging the corresponding sealing strip outwardly, said straight sealing strips having a shoulder at each end with a surface extending perpendicularly to said longitudinal axis, said curved sealing strips having end legs resting on the corresponding shoulder surface of the straight sealing strips at said corners whereby the sealing strips reinforce each other at the corners.
An internal combustion engine comprising four plates mounted to define a cylinder having a rectangular cross section, a piston having a rectangular cross section defined by a pair of short opposite sides and a pair of long opposite sides, said sides defining four corners, said piston being positioned in said cylinder for slidable movement along the longitudinal axis thereof, means covering said plates at one end to define, in combination with said four plates a combustion chamber at one end of said piston, means covering said four plates at the other ends thereof to define, in combination with said four plates a crankcase at the other end of said piston, a crankshaft rotatably mounted about an axis normal to the axis of said cylinder, a guideway slot extending completely across the surface of said piston facing toward said crankshaft in a direction normal to the longitudinal axis of said cylinder, said slot extending only partway through said piston in the axial direction of said crankshaft, pin means slidably engaging said guideway and mounted on said crankshaft at a position offset from the axis thereof, whereby linear movement of said piston in said cylinder is translated to rotational movement of said crankshaft by way of said pin means, said piston further comprising a substantially straight groove in each of said short sides and a curved groove in each of said long sides, said grooves merging in said corners, a pair of straight sealing strips inserted in the respective groove of said short piston sides, a pair of curved sealing strips inserted in the respective groove of said long piston sides, separate spring means inserted in each of said grooves for uniformly urging the corresponding sealing strip outwardly, said straight sealing strips having a shoulder at each end with a surface extending perpendicularly to said longitudinal axis, said curved sealing strips having end legs resting on the corresponding shoulder surface of the straight sealing strips at said corners whereby the sealing strips reinforce each other at the corners.
The internal combustion engine of claim 13, wherein said housing means comprises a central housing member having two pairs of flat opposite sides and a central aperture, means mounting said first and second plates in spaced apart parallel relationship in said aperture to extend normal to one pair of said opposite sides, and means mounting said third and fourth plates on the other pair of said sides, whereby said plates and central housing member define a combustion chamber at one end of said cylinder and a crankcase at the other end of the cylinder.
The internal combustion engine of claim 14, wherein said housing means further comprises first and second outer housing members mounted externally on said third and fourth plates respectively, whereby said third and fourth plates are sandwiched between said central housing member and said first and second outer housing members, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.